I have always held a deep love for books. In my grown-up life I want to keep, and share, this love, along with other bits of life that make me happy.

Hank Green has been in my life since I was about 12 years old. Typing that out has just made me realise that is 10 YEARS of my life which I’ll react properly to some other time. I have complex feelings about the Green brothers at this time in my life, but the fact remains that I care about the things Hank Green creates.

I was especially interested in this book. I truly had no idea if Hank Green would be able to write something I would enjoy, regardless of his ability to create content I enjoy in other media. I’ve never thought of him as a fiction writer, he was the ‘science’ brother and I think that’s why he was my favourite Vlogbrother for so long – I fell more on the science geek side of things.

The book had endless positive feedback from everyone I followed online with an advanced copy. I still didn’t entirely feel I could trust them (I know I would struggle to criticise Hank) and I wasn’t entirely convinced when the book arrived. I had, of course, pre-ordered it despite all this doubt – like I said, Hank Green has held such a long-term place in my life, I care.

I wasn’t even entirely convinced after one or two chapters. It took me a little while longer to get into the story than I expected. I had recently read the miseducation of Cameron Post (blog coming soon?) and I had barely been able to put that down once I got it.

By the end of an absolutely remarkable thing I had teared up and had a little swell of joy in my chest as I read the acknowledgments. So in the end, I liked it. I did actually really like it – I’ll admit books with a bisexual lead get an immediate bonus 50 points from me (I’m biased as heck), but it wasn’t the only thing that I loved.

I do think the story was great, it was interesting and thoughtful. Eventually, I did hit a point where I did not put the book down again until I had finished. Hank names a lot of people in the acknowledgments who helped him write the story of someone who had different life experiences to him – and it showed. I was so pleasantly surprised by how he wrote a bisexual woman, and how he tried to make sure there was some diversity explicitly included. It’s still a book by a white, well-off, dude – but it helps a little.

Something which Hank is likely unique positioned to write about, which I found interesting in a way almost unrelated to the story, was the tale of becoming popular online running alongside the events in the book. It feels like it’s getting popular at the moment to have stories featuring vloggers and influencers – an absolutely remarkable thing felt like a more legitimate version of this story than some of the others I’ve encountered. I wonder how many of the comments about April’s relationship with her viewers and her celebrity status stemmed directly from Hank’s experience. Even as someone without a following I recognised the desire for attention April regularly admits to.

Ultimately, I liked this book, it’s not right at the top of my ‘favourites’ list, but it made me really happy. It snuck in ideas about the human condition without being too aggressive about it, and honestly, the story was just really fun – you want to know what happens, you want to solve the mystery that is Carl. I’ll definitely read the sequel – I’m dying to know more.

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